Refrigerating apparatus



(No Model.) l 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

H. AUMAN. REPRIGERATING APPARATUS.

Patented Peb. 8, 1898.

(lll I HENRY AUMAN, or KENDALLVILLE, INDIANA.

REFRIGERATING APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 598,621, dated February 8, 1898.

Application filed April 17, 1897.

To LZZ whom t may concern.-

Be it known that I, HENRY AUMAN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Kendallville, in the county of Noble and Stateof Indiana, have invented certain new and useful 11nprovements in Cooling Devices and I do heref by declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to refrigerator appliances for use in connection with a refrigerator building, railway-car, and portable or stationary meat or provision boxes used in restaurants, hotels, residences, or other places.

The invention resides more particularly in the construction and arrangement of the apartment designed to cont-ain the ice; and the object that I have in view is to provide an improved ice-room in which provision is made for the thorough discharge of the dripwater resulting from the melting of the ice and to insure a circulation of air to and from the provision or storage compartment, the egress of cold air from the cooling or ice room being readily controlled by adjustment of suitable appliances.

Vith these ends in view the invention consists in the novel combination of devices and in the construction and arrangement of parts, which will be hereinafter fully described and claimed.

To enable others to understand my invention," I have illustrated the same in the accompanying drawings,forming a part of this speciiication, and in which- .Figure 1 is a sectional plan view of part of a refrigerator structure embodying my improved ice or cooling room. Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional elevation on the plane indicated by the dotted line 2 2 ofFig. 3. Fig. 3 is a vertical longitudinal sectional elevation on the plane indicated by the dotted line 3 3 of Fig. l. Fig. 4 is a detail view of one of the drip-pans. Fig. 5 is a detail view of one of the protective caps for the bench that supports the ice-rack.

Like letters of reference denote corresponding parts in all the figures of the drawings.

A designates a refrigerator structure of any suitable character, such as a building,railway car, or a meat or provision box used in hotels,

Serial N0. 632,615. (No model.)

restaurants, and other places. In this structure is provided the usual provision or stor l age compartment B, inwhich perishable matter may be placed, as usual. The interior of this structure, at one end or side or ceiling thereof, is constructed and equipped in accordance with my invention to produce the ice or cooling apartment C, the two compartments B C being separated or isolated practically, though not wholly, from each other by an intervening partition D. Of course the storage-chamber B of the structure should be equipped with a door or doors for access thereto, and it may have one or more windows for admitting light; but this is a matter outside of my present invention.

The ice or cooling room C is shown in the drawings as situated at one endof the Astructure. In the bottom part of this apartment C is erected a series of posts E, which sustain the horizontal sills F and the bottoms G,

the whole constituting benches on which the drip-trays and the ice-rack are supported at a suitable height above the floor of said apartment C. On the sides of the posts E, below the sills F, are fastened the cleats g, which are arranged in inclined positions, so as to slope from the end wall of the room C toward the partition D, and on these cleats rest or are fastened the bottoms G, which slope correspondingly to the cleats'. The bottoms Gr lie below the sills F, and on the bottoms rest the removable trays H, two or more of which may be used, according to the capacity of the chamber C. Each tray consists of an imperforate metallic structure having an imperforate bottom and upright flanges 7L around three of its sides; but at the open end of this tray it is formed with a transverse conducting-trough h. The trays are sustained by the bottoms G in sloping positions to cause the drip-water to flow toward the open ends of the trays and into the troughs 71, thereof; and the adjacent trays, forming one pair of trays, have their troughs 72, inclined in opposite directions, so that the adjacent troughs slope or incline toward a' common drip-tube I, which has a flared open end arranged below the deep discharge ends of the troughs, thus discharging the drip water from the trays to the outside of the ice or cooling room. The sills F are protected from the deterorat- IOO ing action of the moisture or water by means of the protective metallic caps J, which are flanged at their sides, as at j, to embrace the flanged edges h of the drip-trays, and these caps serve to conduct any Water or moisture into the trays. The flanged caps J do not embrace the flanged edges of the trays snugly or tightly, but a limited amount of play is provided between the flanges of the caps and the trays, so that the latter may be slipped endwise upon or from the bottoms G without hindrance from the caps J. Said metallic caps J are provided at their ends with the upwardlyextending fianges j 2, as shown by Fig. 5.

On the sills F and the caps J thereof rests the ice-rack K, which may be easily fitted in place or removed for the purpose of cleaning the same, as desired. This rack is of the usual slatted form, and it is held in place by the benches, which afford a substantial structure to properly sustain the load or weight of the ice which may be placed on the rack.

The partition D is arranged in a vertical position near the end of the benches adja* cent to the storage-compartment B. This partition has its end edges fitted between cleats or strips m m,fastened to opposite walls of the room C, and the lower edge of the partition rests upon the sills F of the benches, so that the latter serve to support the weight of the partition D, While cleats hold it in place. The partition does not extend clear up to the ceiling of the room C, but it terminates a short distance below the ceiling to leave a space (indicated at c) for the passage of the warm odor-laden current of air from the storage-apartment B to the cooling-room. By having the lower edge of the partition rest f upon the benches openings or spaces are pro- .or less, according to the volume of cold air it may be desired to supply from the ice-room to the storage-apartment. Suitable means may be provided for holding the door in its open position-as, .for instance, a hook or rod engaging with an eye on the hinged door (shown in Fig. 3)*-and provision is thus made for regulating the volume of cold air supplied to the storage-compartment.

L Slat-s O are fastened at intervals to the walls of the cooling-room and to the partition D, and these slats form intermediate spaces or channels 0, through which the air may circulate freely without hindrance from the mass of ice contained in the cooling-room C.

It will be observed that my improvements provide for the positive circulation of air to and from the ice and storage compartments of the structure and for the thorough discharge of the drip-water from the melting ice on the rack K. The cold air passes from the ice-chamber beneath the partition D and the doors therein into the storage-chamber B, and as the air absorbs heat by contact with the perishable matter stored in said chamber it gradually ascends to the ceiling of the chamlber B, from whence it passes through the space c, over the partition D, back into the chamber C. The air is cooled in this chamber C, and in the process of cooling the noxious moistures and gases absorbed while in the chamber B are condensed and precipitated, so that they are finally carried off with the drip from the ice, while the purified cold air again passes back into the chamber B, thus maintaining a constant circulation.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The combination with a bench having the sill F and a partition, of the protective flan ged caps J fitted to the tops of the sills and embracing the sides thereof, the sloping trays flanged at their side edges to slidably fit to the flanged sides of the caps and provided, at their front edges, with the inclined troughs, the troughs of adjacent trays being inclined toward each other, an ice-rack resting on the protective caps, and a drip-tube common to adjacenttrays and arranged below the discharge ends of the troughs thereof to receive the drippings from said troughs, substantially as described, for the purposes set forth.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

HENRY AUMAN.

Vitnesses:

THOMAS L. GRAvEs, VILHELM FLoToW. 

